Kissinger: A dance through intricacies of diplomacy

In passing away of Henry Kissinger, the world has lost a diplomat and an outstanding political scientist who shaped policies for the United States of America at some of the most crucial turns of its history.

Having served as National Security Advisor and Secretary of State under two Presidents, Richard Nixon and Jerald Ford, Kissinger’s legacy cast shadows over the American foreign policy for long many years to come.

Opening bilateral relations with People’s Republic of China at the height of the rule of Mao Zedong and Chou en-Lai; seeking détente with Union of Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR), the predecessor of Russia; and disentangling the US from the ruinous Vietnam War that was bleeding America white, will remain his most iconic accomplishments.

Although his diplomatic efforts in organising Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT-I and SALT-II) led to huge relaxation of tensions in Europe, the rapprochement he brought about with China inaugurated almost a new era for the two great powers across the Pacific Ocean till then engaged in eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation.

He wooed away China from Sino-Soviet alliance and opened way for trade relations with America leading to be its chief trade partner for several decades.

His secret parleys in Paris with representatives of North and South Vietnam resulted in the US coming out of a war—till then it longest military engagement—that was reason for building up huge discontent at home due to incarceration of PoWs.

Conferment of the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize on him which he shared with Vietnam’s Lee Duc Tho, only made the award controversial. Kissinger donated the money to a public charity, did not attend the award presentation ceremony at Helsinki and later even wanted to return the medal.

Born in a German Jewish family which fled Germany in 1933 at the height of Nazi campaign against Jews, he was known for not having any sympathy for Jews being persecuted in Russia and did not think it to be an objective of concern for America.

He harboured deep disdain for India’s prime minister Indira Gandhi and her plea for the US support to free East Pakistan where Pakistani Army was engaged in a genocide.

He later regretted some of his unparliamentary remarks made against Mrs. Gandhi. Much of the anti-India hostility he owed to India’s Treaty of Friendship with Soviet Union which expanded Soviet influence far into the southern hemisphere.

Secretive in his approach, Kissinger shared a penchant for backchannel diplomacy with President Nixon whom he had called “the most dangerous of all the men running to have as president”, only to change his mind and later offering him help to win.

The duo often skirted the State Department in their negotiations. Kissinger was a known proponent of Realpolitik, i.e., politics motivated by goals rather than guided by the ideological goals and deployed it ably in dealing with the Soviet Union, China as well as Middle East where it persuaded Israel to return the Sinai Peninsula to win relaxation of Arab anger against the United States and oil embargo by oil-rich states.

Following his death, Kissinger has received more negative remarks than those who have praised him for being a diplomat with ‘fierce intellect’ and a statesman.

Ferocious bombing of Cambodia under his watch leading to millions of death had earned him infamy and is still remembered as an indelible stain on and stigma against American values.